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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Tuesday, September 30, 2003

U.S. joins Honolulu dock suit

Associated Press

The U.S. government has joined a Honolulu shipyard's lawsuit accusing two companies of conspiring to defraud the government out of a surplus Navy dry dock, the U.S. Department of Justice said yesterday.

The complaint by Honolulu-based Pacific Shipyards International says Tanadgusix Corp. of Alaska (TDX) and Marisco Ltd., a Hawai'i-based ship repair company, conspired to make false statements to obtain the dry dock. The complaint says the two companies told the government that TDX intended to take the dock to Alaska and manage and operate it there, while it planned instead to leave the dock in Hawai'i under Marisco's control.

The suit was filed under the whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act. Under that law, the federal government can recover three times the amount of its loss, plus civil penalties. If there is a settlement, Pacific Shipyard will share in 15 percent to 25 percent of it, according to Charles Miller, a spokesman for the Justice Department.